Hey, it's your old pal Slim, and this is 70mm Podcast for movie lovers just like you. Disclaimer at the very top of this podcast, we're not experts, but we do love watching movies. With me each and every episode is my close friend and artist, Danny Haas. Hello. and our close friend and movie insider, Protolexis. Man? Police? Man? Every movie that we cover is connected to a theme for that month, and this time, it's BDSM.
books directly to the screen month. You can use the chapters in your podcast app to skip right to our main discussion. This week, it's my pick, directed by Ridley Scott from 1982, Blade Runner. I wrote down, you sang that line. I wrote down, I had no idea this was in one of the work prints of the movie, Blade Runner, when he's like in the alley, his like pseudo-partner, Edward James Olmos. But are you sure you are a man? I was like, man, doesn't get any more non-ambiguous than that.
Cripes. Thank God they cut that out. You gotta ask the question. It was like the most on-the-nose question. For those dozing in the back row. But are you sure you are a man, Deckard? But the big story tonight, Kathleen Kennedy, allegedly out at Lucasfilm. This is what the people are waiting to hear. They don't give a hoot about the Oscars that happened.
this weekend. We're not going to get into it. This isn't that kind of podcast. No. Thankfully. Kathleen Kennedy, Matt Baloney, saying it, that Kathleen Kennedy on the outs. She's going to be gone soon. From his Puck Talk website. What? Pearl, do you have thoughts on this before I get into the rebuttal that has now been public breaking news? You know, I really couldn't tell you. I know Kathleen Kennedy's name, but what she actually does, I have no idea. Pull the plug. Yikes.
I'm going to log into Twitter two months from now and see an at reply from some guy. I can't believe one host said they didn't know who Kathleen Kennedy was. You know, this Kathleen Kennedy, one of maybe the most successful female producers, executives in Hollywood history, male or female, now that I say it out loud. Correct. Genderless success. But there's been a rebuttal. Breaking news right before we recorded. She has spoken out. Let's hear it. Not really a takedown of the story.
She said it could be, you know, we have a succession plan where we've been working on it for years. News could be months to a year from now on a successor. So she essentially like confirmed it. Oh. in my view of that article that came out. Did you read the article, Danny? Maybe not. Listen, let me read the first sentence of this quote from her. The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I'm not retiring. I will never.
retire from movies. I will die making movies. That's her quote. A paragraph after that, maybe two sentences, she says, we might announce something months to a year from now. Yeah. She's not retiring. It's like true, though. Then why would you even say the line if you weren't retiring? Maybe it's an addendum to her will. When she's dead, this is who will take her place. Her living will.
It's going to be revealed months to a year from now. I mean, good for her. You know, this is like her Leonardo DiCaprio moment in Wolf of Wall Street. I'm not leaving. You know? That's what Kathleen's good for. You know, round of applause for Kathleen. Stick it to your guns. Don't let them push you out. This is it. This is her moment. She has great things ahead of her.
I love Kathleen. I'm just putting that on the record. Name a host on the show that doesn't love Kathleen Kennedy and her decades of work. I dare you. Proto. We all love Kathleen Kennedy on this show. I love Kathleen. The Last Jedi, anyone? Actually, speaking of The Last Jedi, I don't know if this is like a Reddit, subreddit, Letterboxd, unofficial, by the way. We don't have any control over that. Disclaimer, we're for Letterboxd. The Last Jedi is lower rated than Phantom Menace on Letterboxd.
Let's not listen to whatever Danny was about to say. Ignore him for now because he's a Phantom Menace lover. But that seems like crazy, right? I think not really, right? I mean, our age that grew up with Phantom Menace that liked it then are now Letterboxd users. We're raiding it. It's time. So you're saying it's come back around, that the Phantom Menace...
George was right. Yeah. The Hive is alive for Phantom Menace. Let's trademark that before this episode goes off. What's the average rating for Last Jedi? Let me look. 2.9? 2.9 for Last Jedi? Idiots? That's what I'm saying. See, I feel like I don't know. I mean, there was such controversy around this movie, but I don't know where the general majority has landed with Last Jedi. Like, was there more love or more hate for it? I have no idea.
We're not going to get into it. This is a dark turn. Can we cut all this? Hey, it's your old pal Danny and this is 70 Millimeter. We'll just start over. The big release this week, a lot of consternation online. Just a reminder, Blade Runner 1982, our 254th episode, bottom of the hour. The Andor Season 2 trailer dropped. Mm-hmm.
big season two people were throbbing for Andor to come back. It's been years. Did you watch the trailer or no? I did watch the trailer. Yeah. What'd you think? Yeah. I liked it. I got chills. At certain moments. I mean, our boy Andor finishing his story. I can't wait to see it. He's got some like Elvis hair going on. Like that slick back hair.
The thumbnail was pretty wild. I don't know what that kid was wearing. I didn't watch it. I'm trying to be that guy, but I just didn't watch it. But I didn't realize the release schedule. So the season takes place over several years and it's like time jumps? It takes place over four years leading up to the events of Rogue One. So each week is three episode drops and all three episodes take place in a year of time.
for the four weeks that the show was releasing. I mean, that sounds amazing. I can't wait. I know. I'm very excited. It makes me wonder why they didn't just, I mean, I don't know. Why not just make like a mini movie? And release that every week? Not that there's a big difference if it's three episodes dropping in a week. I don't think people could wrap their headers around that. No. Not in this media landscape of 2025. Four episodes? Mm-mm. Mm-mm.
Just a reminder, BDSM, this month, we, the three of us, are going hard into BDSM, off-air, on-air, all month long, books directly to screen month. And we initially we're going to change our plans for the month. We originally were going to have our interns vote on the fourth week of the month. Sorry, interns. We're just going to pivot a little bit. We thought it might be.
a good idea to do a gene hackman movie also some breaking news today gene hackman his wife and one of their dogs unfortunately passed away under as of recording Strange Circumstances. So we will be honoring Gene by covering The French Connection for the fourth week this month. Based on a book. Based on a book. Based on a book, folks. Look it up. Friedkin, back on the pod, bro. Oh, yeah. The Friedman. Yeah, we, you know, the more Friedkin movies you watch, the better you are.
you know true it's just a fact very true um five doctors agree The IMDB, this is not next week, but in a few weeks, the French Connection, a pair of NYPD detectives in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a heroin smuggling ring based in Marseille. but stopping them and capturing their leaders prove an elusive goal. Can't wait for this. Okay. Detective Popeye Doyle. Gene.
If you're wondering if our boy Roy Scheider is in this movie, wonder no more he is. And he looks great. He's got that physique of like a Harrison Ford. In that era. Like cigarette smoking thinness and muscular. How come we haven't developed like a non-lethal drug that I can take that would give me that physique? Yeah, what are they doing?
I mean, it's just a cigarette here and there. If that's what it takes, right? We can do it. Pro, did you watch anything this week you want to discuss? I know the answer already, but... Let's see. What did I watch worth talking about? Well, I did get to go to the theater with my youngest and my oldest.
uh my son theo was going to a birthday party where they were going to see dogman and uh when my youngest heard that he said we're going to so uh fired up the amc app got us three tickets one o'clock showing uh i got to catch a few winks while in the theater that felt great you know i mean it's
It's one of the greatest joys to me. Right now, this season of life, you sit down with your kids, they're watching a movie, and you're only half interested. You're like, I'll watch this. But then you feel like you're going to nod off, and you just... you just take it right you just like let the sleepies get you yeah totally take over i might have been asleep for five minutes i might have been asleep for 25 minutes i have no idea but it felt great
So we got to enjoy some Dogman together. Cute little movie. Do you get any snacks? You know, we do the slushies. Sometimes popcorn, but... i didn't want to get involved you know with the whole popcorn business it's too you know sometimes you want to keep it simple okay so we got slushies and call it a day
Did you ever read the Dogman books? James, when he was younger, he had a bunch of them. I really liked them. Yeah, we read some of them. Yeah, they were really cute. Yeah. So we were familiar with the source material. So that was fun. And then I also watched, I went back to the Coen brothers and watched Hudsucker Proxy. This was an early movie for the Coens.
This is a Tim Robbins movie. I don't want to see this for a while. I think they did this right before Fargo. So that's like, yeah. Hudsucker was 94. Fargo was 96. So it's pretty early. But, you know, I didn't like this one too much. I gave it three stars. I thought it was fine. But not my favorite from the Coens. This quote from your review, is it me or are the Tubi ads getting more egregious? Yeah, I mean, have you guys used Tubi recently?
I feel like they're getting a little big for their britches after that Super Bowl situation. I think they're feeling themselves with the amount of ads I'm getting. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Depends. Would you rather have... more ads and have them be like higher quality or watch something on like these lesser popular like legal streaming services like Plex has movies on their app but the ads look like they were
produced by the 12-year-old down the street for a pizza place. It's like they're very strange. I don't know who approves these ads. I don't know what I'd rather have, honestly, in terms of ads. None. Is my preferred. But you take what you can get, right? Yeah, but that's it. That's all I really got to this week. It's fine. It's fine. I was actually... Amanda was like...
I told Amanda in January that I was like not watching a ton of movies. And then I tried to look to see like where I'm at. I mean, two months into the year, I think I'm still kind of low. I watched 35 movies this year. And we're about in month three. That's pretty good. That feels low. Historical low for me. I'm not padding my numbers this year, okay? I'm watching things I want to watch when I want to watch them. Good for you.
I'm at 35 logged as well. I'm at five. I mean, I did work with the Final Destination series and that just caught me up to proto. It's disgusting. Are you okay? I mean, they were okay. They were actually pretty gory. Like, maybe I just forgot how violent they were in, like, some of those deaths. It's like the more white bread... Saw series, I guess, Final Destination. White bread saw. Yeah. Saw's a little bit more gritty, dirty.
But if you're like shopping at Abercrombie and wearing khaki pants, then Final Destination is like your saw. Read into that what you will. It's a good way of putting it. I like that. Thank you. I don't know what that means. Let's see. Who do we want to welcome? Colin, Marissa, Epi, Mac, and Rob all became patrons of ours over the last few weeks. Got access to Uncut episodes. Our Discord.
and discounts on merch from our store. We almost never talk about our merch store. Something I need to work on. VHSvillage.com. You can get merch. Posters. Every episode has like a poster for sale. We got hats, shirts. Danny just like quietly releases hats with really cool logos that are based on other properties that I won't name for legal purposes. What kind of new things are you making? What do you got cooked up?
What should we expect? Nothing yet. No, nothing yet. Okay. Nothing. You can buy this Blade Runner poster from vhsvillage.com if you so desire. One thing I'll mention that I watched, I didn't mention it last week, I can't remember why, but I listened to the Wicked commentary. Oh, nice. I thought it was... Who's on that? It has both of them, Cynthia and Ariana. They're just together watching the movie in an audio studio. It was great, honestly.
I've only like read scant things from the promotion of the movie. Like I know Ariana and Cynthia were on the press tour and there was like this, you know, thing. with like the holding space and then she like grabs her finger in like a weird way but honestly like listening to the two of them chat for nearly three hours about like
their love of the movie and each other. I totally get it. I understand Ariana Grande more than maybe most people do by listening to her talk for two and a half hours watching Wicked. She seems like a complete scholar of the play and many versions of it. Like she's referencing things from different productions of Wicked, how they brought in crew that had worked on different versions of it. Like, oh, here's so-and-so. They came in because they worked on this.
She like genuinely loves Cynthia. She's like complimenting her the entire time. Like, oh my God, your voice is so good here. Oh, I love how you sang this. It was pretty endearing. okay if anyone that's awesome loves the the wicked stage show or the movie i highly recommend checking out it was fun i don't know why it makes me chuckle you just recommending
Wicked, the stage show. Listen, not everyone has seen it. I have not seen it, folks. You're right. I haven't seen it. I would love to see when they release... physical media, if they do any behind the scenes of them performing these songs live while they're shooting, like what that looks like. Cause like some musicals, most musicals it's ADR at the end.
But to see them perform these things live while they're filming, I would love to see that process. Maybe it's on the special features of the disc. I have no idea. Is the disc out? Oh, I don't know if the disc is out. I mean, I would assume if I listened to the audio commentary on that podcast. There was one cool moment. I think it was towards the end where they're in, you know, like, this is not a spoiler, but...
when they're in the tower walking up the steps. Yeah. I think Cynthia is singing in that scene and both of them were like, oh, it was so quiet when you were singing this. And the only audio that we could hear was you walking up the creaky steps. Oh, that's insane. The audio engineers had to try to go in and clean it up because that was coming through in the audio track. That's rad. Fun stuff.
Danny, did you watch anything? No. My week was filled with Blade Runner, if I can be honest. You can be. And we'll get into it. Three-hour doc. I might have watched the film a few times. So yeah, this was my week. I was really into it. I mean, that doc is very long. That took me a couple days to finish. Yeah, three and a half hours. And we played Apex. We did. Yeah, we all watched the three and a half hour.
Dangerous Days making of Blade Runner documentary, which is on archive.org. So we will be talking about that a bunch in our main discussion. Just FYI to everybody. I mean, it's an incredible documentary. What are we doing as a society where we don't have these things being produced on the regular? I know. I don't understand it. What are we doing? What's happening? What's the name of the one for Apocalypse Now?
uh into darkness into dark something like that but i was when i was watching this i was like this is how i felt while watching hearts of darkness like this is the quality everything deserves us
Like, you're talking about Wicked. Like, give me a three-hour behind-the-scenes Wicked doc. Oh, my God. I mean, I think modern versions of this, I remember us, or at the very least, me loving... the ryan johnson last jedi yeah the last jedi one's fantastic that one was mind-blowing yeah and because it like covered maybe a lot of people forget but the press tour
for The Last Jedi didn't go so hot initially because Mark Hamill, like, kind of took a dump on Rian Johnson's version of Skywalker. He's like, I...
It's not the Skywalker I would have written. I don't agree with a lot of his choices. Luke wouldn't do this or that. And it kind of like... major wet blanket it was and I think like Ryan was pretty offended and hurt because you know you're writing your dream movie and then Luke the guy who plays Luke Skywalker says I don't like what you're doing publicly
Publicly. That movie was almost doomed from the start. And it was Mark Hamill's fault. Like, I love Mark Hamill and Luke Skywalker, but man, you left up. Yeah. Big time. So a lot of that stuff is in the documentary. They're kind of going back and forth about decisions, and it's an amazing piece of media. Blade Runner is our main feature this week. Episode 254, 1982. Ridley Scott, Sean Young, Harry Ford. What's this movie all about?
In 2019, humanity has reached the peak of their existence, having turned Earth into a toxic hellhole, fueled by technological leaps in cybernetics, anti-gravity, and video chat. Los Angeles has lost the smog war as an eternal rainy night blankets the sprawl that stretches as far as the eye can see. At the center is the Tyrell Corporation's headquarters that manufactures the most advanced human androids. These replicants are used off-world on planetary colonies and are forbidden on Earth.
If any are discovered, a Blade Runner is dispatched to retire the units. Rick Deckard is a Blade Runner and is tasked with hunting down four units in LA. But when he discovers that some replicants believe themselves to be human, By means of false memory, he must ask the question, what is real? I thought you were going to say Los Angeles has lost the sauce.
Which I think would have worked also. Okay, Mount Rushmore, Ridley Scott movies. What are your top three, Ridley, if you can't choose Blade Runner? As that's our main course right now. I wouldn't. Spoilers. Unable to be chosen. Let me look at my watch here. Let's see. Let's get into it here. Is Last Duel in there? I feel like it might be. I mean, it has to be Alien, number one. It has to be. Easy. Not even a question. Gladiator.
Wow. I rewatched that, okay, last year. A religious experience. Returning to Gladiator. Third? I might say The Last Duel. I really enjoyed that movie. I need to watch that. Yeah. Wow. I feel like it's been too long since I've seen American Gangster. I don't know how I feel about that movie anymore. We need to cover G.I. Jane on the show. Okay. Ridley, Demi, Vigo, Morris.
That might have been a TNT or TBS watch for me back in that day. I forgot he did Hannibal. Yeah, I had to double check that letterbox was right on that one. Mine is probably very similar. I would do Alien, Gladiator, and I can't honestly think of what I thought of Legend. You loved Legend. Did I love Legend? I know Tom's in it, but I'm going to throw a Kerbal. I'm going to throw Prometheus in there. Solid pick. Prometheus.
in my view, gets better on every rewatch that I give it. I watched Prometheus before I watched Alien. Good lord. I had no idea it was an Alien movie. Good lord. That's why we're here, folks. I guess for mine, it'd be Alien. I'm actually going to say Matchstick Men, but I haven't seen it in a while. I loved Matchstick Men. I remember loving it, too. I would like to revisit that one.
And Thelma and Louise. Yeah. I got to put Thelma up there. I loved that movie. Whatever happened to Sam Rockwell? What's he up to these days? Sam Rockwell was in a lot of stuff, I feel like, when we were growing up. Moon. The rest. Hasn't he done some TV Iron Man nonsense? I mean, his most recent output, you know, he was in Jojo Rabbit. He was in Richard Jewell. Trolls movie. The bad guys movie animated. Argyle. If.
He's just living his life. With Ryan Reynolds. Get the bag. That's all I can say. Get the bag. He's living. He's living. Get the bag. Working. What is your history with Blade Runner, Proto? Was this like a DVD? Were you one of the cult fans growing up? What was your memories of that? No, I wasn't a cult fan. This is one of the movies where my dad said, we're watching Blade Runner. Come sit down.
this is an important movie, and we watched it. Oh, my. This got the same treatment as 2001. And I think... I remember my first experience of thinking, I don't understand what's going on. This is kind of boring. This looks cool, but I'm not totally feeling it as a... 15-year-old or however old I was. I think it was around that time. So that was my memory. And then I don't think I watched it for a long time. This isn't a movie that I watch much.
But watching the final, I think I watched the final cut for the first time and the 4K a couple years ago. And that, you know, coming back to it as a man. It was a different experience. Danny? So yeah, my history, I... I watched this movie for the first time with a friend in high school, maybe closer to out of high school when I first watched it, and absolutely hated it.
I was expecting Harrison, and I thought it was going to be like Star Wars-esque. I wanted laser blasters and spaceships. And when it started in maybe 30 minutes, I'm like, what are we watching? What is this movie? So I had no idea what I was watching. I didn't revisit it till later in life. And with another one of my friends, he thought I was an idiot for not liking this movie. And he was correct.
And I think it was probably closer to when either 2049 was announced or around a little before that time I had revisited and enjoyed it a bit. And then, yeah, watching it this week a few times. I haven't watched it a ton, but before 2049 is when I kind of really fell in love with it. I think the version that I would have watched when I was younger or been aware of was the director's cut.
You know, the version that did not have a voiceover. I think it was like released in the 90s. So it's like technically the work print of the movie. And Ridley... Scott, like, I guess, infamously, famously wasn't really in charge of that version that came out. I think it was like maybe WB or some...
Some group put it out. So his official version that he signs off on is the one that came out in 2007, which is the final cut. But there's slight differences between those two versions. So I remember when I was a kid, I feel like... You hear about the guy who did Alien also did this other sci-fi movie. Me as a kid, this is how I'm introduced to Blade Runner and Harrison Ford from Star Wars is in it. And I feel like I had a similar thing where this looks cool.
but nobody really talks about it like Star Wars or Indiana Jones. And maybe after watching it, I kind of like got it. Like, yeah, I guess, you know, it's okay.
But it's not as cool as those other movies. At least that's what I would have thought when I was younger. But then over the years, you know... I guess you watch more movies, you become like aware of a director's filmography and like... what was happening at the time the movie came out and you kind of are a little bit you spend more time thinking about it so then you like start to appreciate those kinds of movies more or in a different way because if I had the director's cut
dvd of this it probably just wasn't used very often like ever um at least that's my that's my like loose memories of this movie like it did feel like a cult movie where it existed but I'm not on the forums, the Blade Runner forums, following these dweebs. So we did watch the making of documentary Dangerous Days. Highly recommended. People check it out if they enjoyed Blade Runner. It's three and a half hours long. It covers so much. They have everyone. They all look amazing.
I mean, Harrison looks incredible. I couldn't believe it. My God, he looks fantastic. I mean, the backstory of this movie, the production, the various versions, it's so bonkers. How they made this movie and he was kind of shoehorned into agreeing to allow a voiceover from Harrison Ford to kind of like explain the story more.
and Harrison didn't even want to do it, so he just half-assed the voiceovers. They sound terrible. They're horrible. They are the absolute worst. And he was, I guess, hoping they're never going to use this. It's so bad. Got them. And they did. They still used it. Joke's on you, Harrison. Oh my gosh. But I feel like the voiceover idea isn't bad because it does feel like a more noir movie.
with like a cop doing voiceover work. So it's not like a crazy idea where someone would position this, at least in my view. Perl, what do you think? Oh, yeah, I definitely agree. Even hearing that... My first thought was just that like, man, I wish they really did it well because I would.
I would want to see a cut that has a voiceover with Harrison really giving it and giving a real sultry, just doing the whole noir bit with narration. Because I think of how well this movie... is crafted of just knowing if that like if this was something that Ridley if it was like his idea if he wanted it in there like I have full faith that it could be amazing so it does kind of make you wish that there was another version of it
That was good. Yeah. Because even like the last scene, like in the doc, Frank Darabont makes fun of the voiceover version because like everyone that's older than us grew up with the voiceover version in theaters. Like that's the version they saw first. And he talks about that scene where Roger gives that famous line at the end when the dove flies away. And then there's a Harrison voiceover that just ruins the movie. It sounds so bad. It sounds terrible.
I couldn't believe it. But my first point, I mean, where are these movies today? Like I said earlier, as a society, in many ways, we are just, we are failing. Everywhere, every way, shape, and form. Watching this in 4K on my LG OLED, I mean, it's like you're sitting up at attention immediately seeing Los Angeles. And the music hits, but like you're in awe of the production of the movie. And that'll probably guide so much of our conversations for this movie, like the production design.
the technical expertise that was put into this movie, like every shot pretty much, and I found out later, I was like, how did they do this in 1982? to the point where, in my opinion, it still looks incredible. Like in that 2007 documentary, the guy who was like in charge of that team, he's like, yeah, I mean, most of it holds up pretty well.
Like, what are you saying? It's 2025, and I think it looks insane still. So that's my first, like, just sitting down to watch this. It is... bonkers to me that this is a a fully produced movie it exists in 2025 like visually there's i feel like nothing touches this like visually right i was thinking about that yeah because
When I think of, I was thinking, all right, what's my list of best looking movies? And, you know, when I think of Blade Runner, it's like Blade Runner's, like, this is like... to me this is it but then I'm also the only other movies I think of are like Apocalypse Now and Lawrence of Arabia those are the other two movies that like kind of come to mind for me
I couldn't think of anything else that I would compare this to. It's just insane how this movie looks in 2025. It is. I was reading your review earlier. It cracked me up. How about this Vangelis score, huh? How about any element of this movie? All Ridley Scott haters in shambles when they return to Blade Runner. Ridley, I never forgot what you did for us, what you did for me.
But I mean, there's no reason why it should look this good. Right. Like we talk about Star Wars, but and, you know, you can see something like if you watch the original version that was released in theaters. you know, it's, there's some things that maybe don't look so hot or whatever. We talk about the matrix. If you watch the matrix today, there's some things that maybe don't look so hot that they're like trying cutting edge things.
But they're doing cutting edge things in here with matte paintings and filming like double exposures to combine the matte painting with like them filming something on set that. I mean, that had to have been cutting edge, right? At the time. And it holds up. Like, it's just bonkers to me. Daniel, I don't know what you think. When they were talking... Oh, go ahead. No, no, no, no. I was just going to say in the doc how they talk about like...
Not knowing how to do any of this and like they were just making it up as they want. It's just like also blows your mind. When they were talking about the double exposure. I think I ever wound it like three times. I'm like, I don't understand how they did this. And they've been like, they were like explaining it. Like this is trigonometry to me. I felt, I felt like an idiot watching the segment where the.
Visual artists were explaining what they did. I didn't get it. How did they do this? I need to hold my hand. They were talking about the dupe layer, the guy paint, knowing how to paint in like alternate colors so that when it was like. exposed again it would look right like what are you talking about and they didn't spend any time giving the viewer like a little help there's no like let me explain what a dupe layer is they're just going balls out like i'm going to just talk about things that
you're an idiot. You're not, you're not ever going to get. And this is how we did it. My face had to look like that first replicant taking the void contest. My brain was about to snap. You were Leon in the scene. I was Leon watching this documentary. So I did have to, I texted a buddy of mine to give me some information. I was like, can you explain to me like I am 10 years old what they're talking about with double exposure?
and optical printing. So there's a segment in the documentary, and I'm sorry if this is boring for people listening, but this is super exciting for us. Buckle up. Buckle up. Buckle up, bish. They talked about Filming the matte painting on the film. You know, they filmed the matte painting, they rewind the film, and they film again with live actors.
insane on the same film so they expose the film twice so there's zero margin for error so like the scene where uh what's his name is like on the ledge of his apartment And they're filming the matte painting. They cut out a little strip for where Harris is going to be. They film it again using the same film. And they expose it again. And the reason they do it on the film is because they said that...
doing optical printing which is like where you just like connect two separate pieces of film together like maybe they film harrison and the matte painting on two separate reels and they just combine them it degrades the quality and that's why they did it all in camera it's like One false move, it's all ruined. The expertise, the expert levels of these people is just nuts to me. When they talked about another one where it's the first meeting at Tyrell.
And Rachel crosses the screen in front of the sunset. And they said how they had to rotoscope the sunset in. I'm like, what? How do you not just have a light there? But they rotoscoped the whole sunset. Yeah. My mind was like, what? Also, the city, they set this camera and like the technology in 1981 had to have been like the most rudimentary thing ever. But they set this camera to film the city skyline.
And they would light up the city in different angles every time they would film it. They'd film it like four times so that when they exposed it like the fourth time. they had this like almost HDR, I guess that was like HDR back then in 1981. They would just get every different angle lit up for the city. And that's how they achieved like all these different lighting angles on the city. Yeah, it's like...
I mean, these people should be canonized. The people that worked on Blade Runner. Nobel Prize. Prado, what's at the top of your list? Yeah, it's hard to not want to talk about how it looks. We can keep going for all I care. Well, my first point is the fact that I got to read the book before. I watched the movie again because I had never read this, and I figured now is a good time as any when I'm going to talk about it on a podcast. But also, it's a pretty short book.
And I kind of figured that because I've read some other Philip K. Dick stories, and they're kind of always a little shorter. So it's like a pretty quick read. I did it in two days. I was like surprised myself. But this is the only time. that I can remember where it's like, I read a book and the story is excellent. It's such a well done novel. And Philip K. Dick, he isn't just like some dude writing.
science fiction like you could tell when i've when i read like other things that he wrote uh outside of his fiction like he's just like a really well learned uh intelligent, philosophical guy who like knows his stuff deeply. So like the themes that are expressed in the book, you know, there's stuff that's in Blade Runner, but it's also like other things as well.
So to have a book like that, of course, this is like, you know, I mean, it's a famous sci-fi novel. But then to also have a movie that is, like we're talking about, it's like the pinnacle of cinema. Yeah. at least in the like at the very least in this genre but I think you could say even cinema as a whole it's just like such an achievement so to have like these two things that are so interesting in their own right and like
And different in a lot of ways, but be this good is just amazing. And I know, Danny, you said you started listening. Yeah, I got into it a bit. How far did you get? A few chapters in. I didn't get to finish it before the show, but enjoyed it. Good stuff. It's a book. The, I mean, are there a lot of changes? I know probably you released the UFO audio to our interns about your experience with the book, but like. Yeah.
How would you compare the two? Having read the book and having seen the movie, do you think it's a faithful adaptation? How does that jive? Well, I wouldn't say it's faithful in that it's like... follows it as closely like some like there's a lot of characters that are in there but there is a lot of
changes throughout. One of the things that I didn't realize until I read the book was that they're called androids in the book. And then in the movie, it's replicants. And I forget that they say it in the doc, but there was somebody who didn't want to use the word.
android i think just because of like the connotations that it had at the time so they switched it to to replicant um but like one of the big things and i love how the book keeps it in to as almost more of like a nod but like all the references to the animals and all the animals that are used in the movie uh like that plays such a bigger role in the book
I mean, the book is called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And that's because Deckard has an electric sheep as an animal. And the goal in the book is that everybody wants to have a real animal as a status symbol.
but they're so expensive because there's very few living animals left. So that's not replicated in the movie, but it's... done in enough ways like with like the the owl who shows up like in the book there's the owl at the there and he thinks it's a real owl but then they tell him actually it's a it's it's fake um
And then like that appears and then also the snake. And then there's the one scene where Deckard is like walking through the market and you see like a donkey and like other animals. So like all those references are there. So I think there's like just the book, the movie is different, but. it has the same spirit. And it realized heavily more, of course, on the whole, is Deckard a human or a replicant? What was the, are you ready now to officially announce?
Based on the book, is Deckard a replicant? You know what? I can't say for sure. You can't say for sure. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I think it was Peep, maybe it was Peoples. The doc covers how they brought in a second writer to kind of go over, I think it was Hampton who had written the original screenplay.
What's fascinating about this, I think his name's Hampton, I'm sorry. He was the original writer. He came back to do 2049 as like co-writer, but they show storyboards of like what his original introduction. in the movie blade runner was and it was the scene with dave batista in 2049 which was like blowing my mind to see like the storyboards that were from the 80s late 70s that were not used and eventually used later
I mean, there's a couple other weird nuggets from the doc. They were talking about how initially Tyrell was a replicant. They were going to show them going down the elevator to show... Oh, is he not? I don't know. I mean, it's left ambiguous in the movie that was filmed, but in the original version, like he crushes his head and he pulls out the jaw to see the numbers.
And then they go downstairs and they see a room of Tyrells in tubes, kind of Palpatine-ish, that he just has many versions of himself, which I thought would have been amazing to see. I thought he was, because... Baddy calls him father when he like greets him. I thought that was like a nod to him being the father of them. Yeah, I saw that too. Outside of just the creator of Androids, but him being an android as well. And then I was thinking he uses the killing him with the eyes.
And the eyes are so symbolic in this movie with the maker of the eyes. I just thought that that was a very specific killing the android with his eyes kind of move. Fastest way to kill a man. pushes eyes into his brain. I'll have to try that sometime. Hopefully no one uses that information based on what I just said. I might have to cut that out for legal purposes. Legal. Please God.
Danny, top of your list. Top of my list for this viewing is Sean Young. I find her absolutely captivating in this film. Her performance, her look. There's just something about her when I think of sci-fi and women of sci-fi. God, this is like, she's got to be up there with Leia for me. She's just incredible. Her poise, I love her introduction when she's with Deckard doing the Voight-Kampff. And when she lights that cigarette, I'm just like, heaven.
Like, she's just incredible. And I like her progressive story as she moves through this time with Deckard. I think she's brilliant in this film. And I think because of... I don't know, people's comments of it being boring or whatever. She doesn't get enough love. But man, I just, I really love her performance as Rachel in this. Yeah, visually off the charts.
Like off the charts. Absolutely off the charts. I mean, the amount of smoke in those scenes, his apartment, she's just like walking around in that outfit with like the crazy shoulder pads. Oh my God. Again, canonize the entire crew. When she lets her hair down and starts playing the piano. Oh my God. Her hair, holy smokes. It was like Neil deGrasse Tyson Cosmos gif. I'm like, I'm going through space.
When she starts playing the piano, Lord have mercy. Oh my God. Yeah, she's good. It was interesting in the doc hearing how just like Ridley Scott. was adamant that it had to be Sean Young too. There was something about her. And others were like, I don't know, Ridley. But he was just like, no, it has to be her. And then even the part where they talked about how...
her and Harrison just didn't really have chemistry. They couldn't develop it. But I think that actually kind of works good in the movie because of him knowing she's a replicant. And the weirdness between them, I think, really works with that story. Gosh. I mean, the fact that they filmed and still had the footage of all the screen tests of all the other actors that they tested.
for that role too so cool so amazing i mean what a absolute treasure trove of footage that they had for this doc it's mind-blowing um Sean Young, I mean, I was going through some of my previous reviews for Blade Runner, and obviously I pointed out how I didn't love the scene where they make Whoopi. Harrison gets a little rough. Not a little rough. He gets rough. He gets rough. And then I read a review. Did I save it? Hopefully I saved it. Yes.
uh jack in our village really like this review jailed um much talk is made about the aggressive sexual assault intimations with the kiss and yes when it's two humans that's awful if we're being honest though deckard is a replicant, a robot, an android, and so is she. It's two robots going at it. Who are we to police how they get their lubricants surging? Have you seen lions effing? I had never considered that.
Okay, in this scenario, let's posit that Deckard is a replicant also. And if there's no empathy between Android and others, what does that look like? Like if, if these two were going to have sexual intercourse based on like what, what information have they been provided to make those first moves? So in that scenario, That scene makes more sense to me. If he's not, I still just don't really like the scene that much. I mean, isn't that the whole point of the Voight-Kampff?
the separation between humans and androids is empathy. And that's what the hundred questions kind of susses out between them. So I don't know. It's something to, I don't know. It's interesting. Right. Yeah. I think. After reading the book, but seeing this again, I like the scene because I think even if he is a human, I think the scene works because everyone in this world... sees them as like property slaves as utility. Right. So, and I think at this point, like the balance of, of empathy.
It's like humans are empathetic, so that's how you can tell they're not replicants. But then they have no empathy for these creatures that appear to be human if you talk with them and interact with them. People complain like this scene, but it's like... Is he not a murderer when he like goes out and kills them? We're not calling him a murderer, but we're calling him like a rapist. So I think it just it adds to the conversation.
about like this whole thing. And I think it's him kind of like fighting his demons, right? Because if he's finding himself being empathetic for this. this uh this replicant that he shouldn't be feeling that way this is kind of his reaction to maybe try to break out of that of being like no she she's not this but he obviously is in love with her too right so i think there's a there's a complexity there that is is really interesting nuance
Yeah, and he's having her repeat lines back to him during that scene. And then she has one more line. That she says as some sort of like feelings for him as well, which kind of feels like it changes the scene a bit for me, if at all for her actually finally saying she has feelings for him. to his face without him forcing her to say it. That's when she says she's gassy. That was the true passing of the test. I'm gassy. God.
I didn't even write a top three things. The production was I think like everything. My God. So I'll just like briefly touch on some things. I mean, the signs in the city, the TDK logo, like that giant neon TDK. Oh my God. Yeah. Where are these lights now? Where is the Blade Runner? amusement park section. Where in Universal am I going to go through the little portal and come out in Los Angeles 2019?
It's just constantly raining. There's smoke inhalation. There's no room. You're wearing like, you know, see-through rain jackets. Okay. And trash is being taken out. The people get murdered. And there you go. That's the ride. Put us in a hover car going through Los Angeles. Vangelis is blaring. Yes. And you just sit back and relax. Kev says I'm describing Manhattan right now. Maybe put on AirPods and listen to Vangelis and walk through Manhattan during the morning. Take an Uber.
Edward Jane's almost little pilot hat that he puts on when he's driving that hover car. He looks great in that. I need that pilot hat. I like that shot. Damn. The Atari logo. I mean, there's just... So many corporation logos in this movie, and it all looks... Cuisinart. Great. There's a Bulova great neon sign, too. How about his video call costing $1.25?
Yo, when she hangs up on him, I'd be charging her. And that was not even a long call. Buck 25 in 1982, 1999. Like 10 cents a second. Sheesh. It's a different time. I had that line. She lets her hair down. She is a stunner. Proto, what do you got? Yeah, I mean, the look of this movie, I love... We're back. Take us back, please.
The friggin' movie. God. There's a great line in the doc where, you know, the three things, like the movie, it's always dark, it's always raining, and it's always smoky. And there's a great... line from ridley where he says like as if someone's asking the question like why is it always night looks better why is it always raining looks better and why is there always smoke because i don't have enough money it looks better
But he is an absolute master in this with the lighting and the smokiness and the water. One of the scenes that I keep... Like I just keep thinking about it. It's just so stupid when I think about it, though. It's like when he goes into Kowalski's apartment and then goes into his bathroom. The lighting in the bathroom, that scene where he finds the snake scale, is just so insane. I was tearing up, and I'm like, what am I doing? This is the lighting in the bathroom.
And that was a reshoot. In the doc, they said that they ended up filming more scenes to explain what was happening more. So that was like a reshoot that they did. And it still looked like that. Yeah, like the attention to detail for just like a small scene like that. That's the thing. It's like every single scene just looks like a million bucks. It's just perfect. I mean, the Bradbury building. God. Seeing that.
Like that whole deal of like they would go in there at night, set up the whole building and then had to have it cleaned up for the next day because it was like it was operational at the time. And just, but I mean, when you see it, like it's dripping and it's full of the cork that looks like rubble and just, gosh, it just looks so good. I got to go into the Bradbury building once and I thought I was going to stroke out.
Because it looks, it's incredible. They said that that police set is still there, right? Was that in the corner of that police station office? Well, the police station exists. I don't think it's in the Bradley. Oh, the Bradbury. But they built out that offices for the police station. Yeah, Paul just dropped the shot of them looking through the ceiling.
for the blimp zeppelin flying overhead them describing how they did that I feel like even the effects artists were like gobsmacked that they that someone had that idea Like, how they describe that, I'm not even going to bother to describe how they did it, but they're on another level. Like, Ridley at this time was, I mean, he's like, he's a master.
Like the production of this movie and what we got out of it. He had just come off Alien and was about to go do Legend. I mean, what were people saying at the time? Well, he'd come off Alien and just about to do Dune, which is also wild. Until his brother died and he pulled back. But I can't imagine him on Dune. That would have been insane. Yeah.
But I mean, he's untouchable at this point. The stuff that he's producing, it's just mind-blowing to me how on he was. And then it just makes me wonder... Ridley Scott, like, we kind of joke about, not like joke, but like, I thought Napoleon was ass. And I have no desire to see like a lot of his other movies, like Martian was good. the modern alien stuff I liked. But like, how do you continue to produce stuff like this? Like at that level?
We said it doesn't exist anymore. When's the last time we watched a new movie and we had this same feeling? Interstellar? Yeah. But it's not even like, I don't even know if that's like production design really. I mean, that's maybe more cinematography. Like Arrival kind of like blew my mind. I don't know. But that wasn't necessarily like production design.
lighting no techniques stuff like that that was almost like more story but it just like as a as like a creator someone who makes stuff as a maker Imagine making Alien and Blade Runner and then needing to continue to produce, right? Like, how do you continue? And like not lose your mind. Like, yes, he did have some like big hits and bangers like Gladiator. Black Hawk Down was pretty big, I think. In the war community. I'm not going to comment on that.
but like I don't know it's just like when I think about that it's just gotta be like some kind of crazy burden on someone like him to I'm not sure if he's ever talked about it but like you know they can't all be like that right like he'd lose his mind if he had to make movies like that forever yeah it's tough yeah well maybe that's part of it because they talk about that how like he was he was in control
Right. They said that of like how this was going to develop and turn out in terms of the effects, the design, like he did the storyboards like he was.
He owned this. So maybe that's part of it. Maybe he's just like, I can't do this anymore. Or he doesn't want to do it. I'm sure because the commitment and the mental and emotional drain to... do something like that it's just monumental I would imagine and maybe it was one of those scenarios too where like it's just the luck of the draw that he was on this movie with this team you know like
I mean like George making ILM I mean this is felt like the same kind of squad for Ridley yeah I liked how that one dude like didn't even really like the movie When he saw the visual effects guy who was in charge of everything, he's like, it was kind of dark. I didn't really like it.
Well, then there was the other guy, too, where he says, like, he went to see it in the theater and there was four other people in there. And he said, it broke my heart, but someday maybe someone will notice. Oh, my God. We notice. Call us. I think it's Danny Stern, maybe? Rutger Hauer. Broi Batty. I fell in love with him in this film. I don't have a huge...
knowledge of his filmography, nor have I seen him a lot outside of random small roles, which is exactly how I feel about Sean Young. After this, why aren't they... shot to stardom like i don't understand why rutger isn't in like major roles after this his performance in that last 30 minutes of the film where After he's killed Tyrell and he knows he can't extend his life, his whole, almost to me, it doesn't even feel like he cares about killing.
harrison at this point or defending harrison he's just he's almost towing with him a bit and just kind of playing around with him when when his arm is like dying and he sticks the the nail through almost like like a crucifixion nail, and his last speech in the rain. I mean, where was Oscar for Rutger in this film? Honest to God. It's just like, he's so captivating. And throughout the entire film, he's captivated. But that last 30...
is like, I'm just glued to the screen watching his performance. It's silly, not silly bad, but like the howling and the breaking of his fingers and kind of just chasing him down. I was just... And this was also my first time watching the 4K. So I'm Neil deGrasse Cosmos, this whole movie, honest to God. And I'm just in love. I'm in love. I'm in love with Rutger in this film.
I think Rutger, which we could see in the doc, is an eccentric cat. I would think that that maybe had something to do with... you know, his filmography after this, I think he was like already kind of a big star. I think he's Danish, right? Like he and Paul Verhoeven had worked together pre-American output. So he's probably like already a big star. Maybe he didn't want to be a Hollywood guy.
So his improv of the final line, it takes a certain guy to have the balls to say that to Ridley Scott, like, let's try this. How will we try this in the final scene? because they even like one last time right they even included um some of his what felt like his improv in like an outtake in the documentary and he's just kind of like rambling different phrases
So, like, some of it didn't hit, but, you know, the one that did is in the movie. I think Art pointed out his biker shorts. He's like, first biker shorts on film in this movie? Run around in his, like... With the thong? His biker shorts and Nikes and his crew socks. He looks so good, though. Like when he first appears, like you see him. All it is is a trench coat and this insane haircut and just his face.
But he's just like so striking. They reference it a lot in the making of the heavy metal magazine and like European comics. He is like a heavy metal meta barons.
Mobius character on screen like he is a living embodiment of a lot of 80s comic books um one one that i love and reference a lot is that star wars dark empire comic that takes place after return of the jedi where like palpatine is a clone and and luke turns to the dark side to win because he thinks he can like turn back and that comic book cam kennedy i think drew it like
It's all Rudger Hauer. Like young Palpatine looks like Rudger Hauer in this movie. And they all have leather jackets. They have high collars. They have like the dusters. So, so much of his like. Aura is everywhere in media. It's nuts. That last line, all those moments will be lost in time, like tears and rain. And then he says, time to die. And I'm like, oh no, here comes the waterworks.
Am I crying over an Android? There's, yeah, someone in chat mentioned Rutgers and Batman Begins. Oh, yeah. Which I forgot. Board member, right? Proto, anything else on your list? The score, the Vangelis score. I made a point this time to kind of pay attention to it more. And man, there are so many... different pieces of music in this that like carries the theme uh there's so much like texture and uh like just different
I don't know. I'm not going to describe him music, but it just kind of blew me away. The piano piece that plays the theme once he's in his apartment. Like it's just so perfect in terms of like that really it carries so much of like the the noir vibes. I think the score it does a lot of heavy lifting to get it to that point. And it just works so well. I adore the whole score in this. It fits perfectly. It's an amazing mood piece. I love it.
There were moments when the saxophone would come in. It was synth sax. And it just sent chills down my spine. It really, honestly, reminded me of more modern. A modern band, our sweet friends, The Midnight, friends of the show, they have this kind of same vibe, especially in their newer tracks. And I'm like, yes. Give me more of this in my life. Give me synth sax all day. The sentence just cracks me up. Give me synth sax all day. It's never been uttered.
out loud in human history, I feel like. I can't believe my Leon brain got through with saying it. Yeah, I tried to listen to this score on Apple Music earlier, but... Maybe this is the normal way, but a lot of it includes some of the lines from the movie to start the track, which I wasn't really super fond of, but whatever. They mentioned a housing shortage, and it was just like maybe I never sat to think about like...
imagine if robots also needed housing. I mean, we'd be kind of screwed. Yeah, when that architect dude said that he was the only one in that whole building with his toys. Oh my God. Home again, home again, jiggety jig. That condo or whatever you want to call it, the ceilings were like 20 feet high. Insane apartment. Why would you ever leave Earth?
The lighting, I meant to say this earlier in the Bradbury, but when they go up in the elevator and the light is beaming out of the elevator into the lobby of that, oh my God. There's so many lights like that of like beaming from like the sky into like his apartment and stuff. Yes. It just looks so good. I just can't get over them having to clean up the Bradbury every night.
I would be so miserable. Insane. Absolutely. Like at 6 a.m. 6 a.m.? We got to clean up. We have an hour to clean up this building. They're going to use it. What? What is going on with the water? I know. It's insane. I don't understand that. Give me three hours on explaining to me how you did not destroy the Bradbury building with water. Oh, boy.
There's something else about Bradbury. What was it? I mean, there's just the scene of Harrison climbing through that apartment, and then he... climbs to like a a wall and i'm wondering like where is he planning on going he like goes through like punches a hole in the ceiling above him and i thought he got outside because it was pouring rain but it was just another level
in that building that was just like getting drenched from the rain outside. Some cool moments about like them talking about how early on giving replicants fake memories is kind of like the new meta and like a total game changer to the replicants like the nexus 6 line like we're giving them fake memories now This could revolutionize everything. That is so cool that that was the next stage of androids and making them closer to people.
Like we could get there one day. I mean, we probably will get there one day. I mean, the whole idea of them coming back to earth just to extend their life. Like they're not there to kill. Really. They're not there to just like take over earth and rule the town. They just want to extend their life and live longer. Like that's a, that's like compelling. Like I'm like, I'm, I'm here for the, I'm here for Roy Batty and Leon.
He says, he's like, I wrote it down somewhere. Like, you, the things I've seen. With these eyes. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. Like, ah, yes, I want to see what you've seen out in outer space. There's probably been like Blade Runner prequel comics out the wazoo from Dynamite Junk, something or other. Fan cams. Yeah, that line's great. There's some great lines. When him and Tyrell are having the conversation about why you can't change their age limit.
after they're made and like the words that he's pulling out it's like i was ascending in my chair just like this sci-fi gobbledygook jargon is just like so good yeah gorgeous Danny? I mean, I'll bring up Harrison. I know we haven't really talked terribly much about him, but when I first saw this... I was expecting Han Solo, honestly, and maybe even a little bit more Indiana Jones, but I was expecting space, more Han Solo. So I didn't really buy this whole noir cop drama that this really is.
But as I watched it now and previously, but watching this 4K, man, I could watch more noir dramas with Harrison. I think he's incredible in this film. I think it's like he gets a little bit... I mean, you even made the joke, Slim, about... Get into it. I'll say it for you. Is he that generation's Chris Pratt?
basically. And I don't know, I don't know if that like is a fair comparison, but it's not like off. If you look at his filmography, like he was doing work between Indiana Jones and Star Wars and Blade Runner and, uh, you know, with this, his run of like few. Got it. I'm listening. But it's like, it's not terribly off, but for what I was expecting from Harrison, it wasn't this. But now that I've fallen in love with this film.
It's up there with one of my favorite performances of his. I really enjoy him in this film. I like when he gets silly when he's trying to catch the replicant with a snake. Not sure what the announcer said she was doing with a snake. I didn't want to Google that. But that whole chase scene is incredible. And his little like fake reporter kind of investigator voice is very silly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She wasn't buying it.
Yeah, she wasn't buying it at all, but I don't know. I think there's just so, like the shot of him just sitting there reading the paper in the very beginning in front of the neon lights and the glass. Like Harrison's built for this. Like this is like, I can't imagine another. actor in this film besides Harrison. He is Deckard. But I think he's great in this film. I think someone else could do it.
I don't think he's the only one who could be Deckard, but I do love him in this. Maybe a Roy Schneider. No. Well, that's the thing. I think I took a shot of the people. They had a list. It was Dustin Hoffman, Peter Falk. I mean, Dustin was in the concept art. It was almost Dustin. Al Pacino, Nick Nolte, and Burt Reynolds.
I don't want any of those guys. I can see Nick Nolte in this era. Yeah. If you looked up, I remember the exact scene you're talking about. If you look a little higher, there's also Paul Newman. I think Paul Newman could have been like brilliant. But then they were showing the illustrations of Deckard with the fedora on. And it's like, Harrison can't wear another fedora in a movie. I mean, that's not possible at this point. He was also 40 at this time. I feel like it's the perfect age.
40 is a great age. Yeah. If I can be honest. Yeah. That's what I've heard. You can be. I referenced the like Chris Pratt comment because I mean if the I said like if the internet was around this time, would people view Harrison Ford as like the Chris Pratt of his generation? Because, I mean, he's in a lot of stuff.
And you can't mention Chris Pratt in 2025 without someone clutching their pearls about how he's in everything. I just feel like that's like the same thing. But yeah, I just like couldn't stop thinking about it. I mean, was anyone bigger? Like... Than Harrison? Than Harrison around that like 10-year period? Seven, 10 years? I mean, Star Wars and all the Indiana Jones movies?
Yeah, I mean, Empire Strikes Back to Raiders to Blade Runner to Return. Like, come on. It's insane. It's a temple to Last Crusade. It's bonkers. Yeah. I did like him in this movie too. It's funny. I jokingly said it's like Harrison Ford getting beat up for two hours. And I'm coming back to my comments about the voiceover. Like a voiceover would have, you know, made sense.
Like we said earlier, if they did it right, you know, he's just like a detective getting beat up for two hours. You do probably a normal 99% of the time you want a voiceover to kind of explain what's he thinking there. I think I'm like 50-50 on the voiceover because I think I would like it as well. But the quiet moments, I like a lot. Like when he's just like pulling up the photograph and he's zooming in like 20 times, which feels impossible. But for whatever reason...
For whatever reason, it works for me in this damn movie. I don't even care. I love it. But I like the silence and the sound effects of that scene. I don't want a voiceover him talking through what he's looking at and why he's looking at. Give me the quiet.
He came up with like different angles of her in the photo. I took it as that the photo has like more properties, that it's like actually like 3D. So he can, inside the photo, you can like... turn the angle how that would work when you take a picture I don't know but that's kind of how I understood it
Yeah. Like somehow like the, as he like panned to the right, it revealed her face. And I'm like, how does this work? I don't even care. I'm too much in love with this film. I don't know. Right. What numbers is he even saying to the computer? 35, 36. Like the pixel position? It doesn't even matter. Yeah, it sounds so good. It sounds great.
I mean, that scene is like 20 minutes of him just sitting, drinking coffee, talking to the photo computer. And that's it. I could watch that scene every day. I love it so much. I also love the Polaroid that is like a live photo. Like, why don't we have that? That one Polaroid when he looks at the mom and the daughter and it like starts moving. I didn't even catch that. Oh my gosh. Oh yeah, it's like.
When he has the first stack of photos, he looks at the one with the mom and the daughter, and then they start to move in the photo. So it's like, you know, iPhone live photo, but of a physical Polaroid. That's the tech we need. That would be amazing. That would be incredible. I guess we're wrapping up now, right? Perl, do you have any closing thoughts, menschies that we haven't touched on yet? Yeah.
The Tyrell conference room, like the lighting. Oh, my God. That scene of when it's behind them and he's walking to the conference table and it's just like that. that gosh the outside view the landscape it's just insane um james hong yes I think the last times I watched this, I didn't know who James Hong was. But his voice is so iconic. Such a great scene. Him in this freezer working on eyeballs.
I love how like the, so him and then the Sebastian guy engineer, like I don't fully understand it. Like, so you guys are engineers working on replicants, like the most valuable piece of tech. In the, you know, in the solar system. And you guys are like living in what appears to be like shacks. Squalor. Squalor. Like Sebastian has Tyrell on speed dial and is playing chess with him, but like he's living in an abandoned building.
It strikes me as funny, but I guess it makes sense, especially like from the book, like everyone just like lives like that and just abandoned places. I mean, Harrison's apartment. The amount of detail in his apartment is wild. How about him just walking into the kitchen, light goes on, walks out of the kitchen, lights go off? Yeah.
Oh, I love this. I love the detective work in this. I think this does a better job of telling a detective story than the book does. Like the book to me didn't really feel like a detective story. It felt more of like Deckard has an assignment. to go kill these replicants. He knows pretty much where they are. He just goes and does the job. Whereas this, the way he's not really, he's not employed by the police.
anymore. He's kind of almost like freelancing this, has to figure it out on his own, piecing together the clues. Just as a detective story, it works so well. those little bits of like the snake scale and him figuring that out. I just, I loved all that. Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, oh man, the scene of Zora going through the glass. Stop. Incredible. Incredible.
Don't they talk about that in the doc of her laying down on the glass at the end? Yeah, they don't place the glass around her to make it the shot. Yeah. When you're watching it, you don't think of that. You're like, oh, she just fell through the window. But then it's perfectly lined up through broken glass to show that amazing neon light in the background. The documentary spent like 40 minutes on the bad wig.
Like in the original version of the movie, they just like... I would never have noticed until they brought it up. I never noticed it. I think they fixed it in the final cut. They digitally adjusted it or something. Even before that, the chase on the street looks so good. the way it's all cut to like the the close-ups of him like looking through what looks like a trolley car um all the scenes on the street it just looks so lived in and real
Yeah. That shot of when he's chasing her through the glass and she runs through the window display that's like a snow globe. But when he stands there and it's like snow falling on him, I'm just like... prayer hands. Like, this is incredible. What are we doing, Ridley? Also amazing that she's being chased down, surrounded by mannequins. I love that, too. A lot of mannequins. You do the math.
Then after that scene, him and I think Gaff and maybe Brian is there too, or he's talking to one of the officers and they're talking in the rain. And the rain is pretty loud, but you can still hear. everyone what they're saying very clearly someone should send this scene to Nolan Christopher Nolan because like Ridley figured I think he figured out in 82 what Nolan has been trying to figure out for the past 10 years I mean that's so true
I didn't really talk about Daryl Hannah much. Oh, yeah. Amazing. Her convulsing at the end. It reminded me of what's her name from Nosferatu recently. Oh, yeah. She even says that in the doc too, right? Like she had just watched Vampyr. Oh, she did bring up Vampyr. That's why she put the stuff on her face.
I loved hearing her talk about her reaction to actually seeing the movie too. She was pretty honest. She's like, I just didn't have any emotional connection to it. It felt like it was filmed by an art director. which I thought was like the most real interpretation of the movie of maybe that's why people don't connect with it. I thought that was pretty cool that they included that. So the origami that he gets from Gaff, is that supposed to be implying that Gaff has the same memories as...
As you're asking the questions. It's theorized. I think it's like more explicit in the work print version. But it's implied that. Those are implanted memories and he's aware of the memories that he has or that he's been given. So he's like kind of like, ooh, I know what you're dreaming about because we put that stuff there.
yeah because he also does that to rachel at the beginning yeah where he knows the dreams that are the memories she has but i don't know my i don't view it as like them teasing that he's a replicant honestly like in my interpretation of the final cut because I think it's just all too ambiguous it just in my view this feeling like I felt like Edward James Olmos was like
tipping his hand to like, I'm letting you take her away and run. Like I was here. I'm the one that let this happen. So that's just like kind of how I view it. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, because I like their relationship. It's very subtle, but I think there's a lot there. I like the unicorn as maybe almost like a spiritual memory that he has.
Like either if he's like a replicant, like the idea that like, what if all replicants shared the same memory, but it wasn't implanted or if, yeah, like the memory, like the, this, this. this vision of a unicorn is representing something something transcendent that he doesn't understand and we're not fully supposed to understand but it's like it's it's hinting towards this
This point that both replicants and humans could reach to understand each other or have like some kind of equivalence. Yeah. So I like like everything that's ambiguous in this movie, I think just like works really well. Yeah, I think I wrote down, I don't care if he's a replicant. I think I realized I don't really care, and I don't know if I want the answer. So that question, like I enjoy it how it is. And the unicorn dream and his conversation with Edward James almost at the end.
I don't know. I just like, I just like like these little nods to like, could he, couldn't he be when his eyes glisten as he walks behind Rachel that one time, like that's such an incredible shot. So it's like, I like that we don't have like this, like he's not cutting open his arm to look at the...
barcode on his bone to find out he's a replicant. I don't need that kind of confirmation. I enjoy it just being super ambiguous and let us kind of live in this world without answers. I'm okay with that. It's too bad she won't live. God. But then again, who does? What a line. Yeah, it's so good. But are you sure you are a man? I couldn't believe it when that showed up in the dark.
Can I talk about the doc one more time? Because we're at the ending. The idea that they reached out to Kubrick to get footage from The Shining to have a drive-away scene. attached to the end of this film of him driving to the Overlook Hotel. My mind was blown that they were like, let's just reach out to Kubrick and see what extra footage he has. from The Shining to throw at the end of Blade Runner. And he gives it to them also. Like, that's insane. Yeah.
It's so funny too because they're like, you know he has hours of footage sitting unused that we could potentially use right now. Amazing. That was so cool. Yeah, I'm glad it ends the way it does. I mean, to me, perfect ending. Perfect cut. The way he steps into the elevator, goes to black, score hits. Oh, it hits. That music. Chef's kiss. Perfect. Is this the next meetup movie? The 4K Blade Runner? Everyone falls asleep in the third act. Wakes up, ready to party. Yeah, I mean...
I would give this movie six stars, six out of five. Oh, my God. It is just the best. Damn. The best. I don't know how it exists in the way it does. I love it. I rewatched it again. I watched it last night, and I watched it again today. I just love it. I mean, we just finished our taxes for the year, so it's time to start planning the next meetup. It's time. We have crossed that roadblock. I'm just going to see if there's anything else on my list that I haven't talked about.
I mean, I love the phrase incept date. So cool. Oh, there's the movie scene, like the Leon Kowalski scene. has one of those weird conversational moments. I think I've referenced in the show, but characters just talking over each other strangely. The interruptions in that scene are so weird and annoying when the tester is interrupting Leon.
Oh, yeah. I would have shot him on the spot. And vice versa? Interrupt me one more time. I don't care if you're a replicant. It's like almost not even real human interaction. It's just so weird. Tortoise. Almost his little hat. Tyrell's office, it looks like they're in ancient Egypt. The way you can see the city. In his house blocks, yeah. His glasses? Oh my God.
Did I get those glasses? I forgot to call out too, there was a VHS Village watch party as well this week for this movie. So if you haven't joined our Patreon, maybe your friends are lame in real life. You need to get in here. Yeah. We're not lame. Right. I mean, we're rarely in the watch parties to be perfectly honest, but I mean, there's some great people in there. Uh, I forgot we have guys around.
we have a vm before we uh oh wrap up it's from philip hey guys it's philip uh very excited and a teeny bit nervous that uh we'll be covering blade runner One of the most influential movies of all time. Kind of wild that both... Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott had just come off making some of the most influential science fiction films of all time. But here we are, one of the best, excited to hear the discussion. I actually am recording this just after I saw the art.
Drop from Danny in the Discord. Incredible stuff. Thank you. One quick story here. This movie I've seen a lot of times, but the first time I saw it, got the VHS from the library. I was watching it late at night on the family television. And because it was late, I think I replayed the Tears in the Rain scene several times just because it was so touching.
and got yelled at say hey turn off and go to bed and i was like pretty sure it's almost over but had to go to bed and uh like right after uh they walk away with the line that too bad she does too bad she won't live line Um, and then the next morning woke up to finish it and literally had like a 60 second scene of him going to pick up Rachel and get in the elevator. So that was my first experience in two chunks, but yeah, this is an incredible movie.
Been privileged to see the final cut in the theaters, I think three times. Oh my God. Nervous and excited for the discussion. Hopefully we cross the dune line. Stay tuned. Stay tuned, Philip. Thank you for the VM. I mean, I got that five-inch black-and-white TV on my desk. Do I need to have Blade Runner playing on this thing? Just a Void Conf eyeball.
Rutger looks amazing. I have a line about the collars. I think it's like the dusters that they were wearing and the collar that he had. Corduroy collars. City shots. Oh yeah, the city shots. Like the shot, it's so confined. Like the way they filmed it. I also loved hearing them talk about filming it like... the way they did it like so cheap i mean it looks like a big city but they just like retrofitted those existing outdoor sets with you know existing pieces and it just saved them so much money
Was it O'Brien or whoever his boss was? Someone asked if he ever took the test himself. Ever take that test yourself? I can't remember if that was him. Poor Sebastian. Yeah, poor guy. I mean, him and Tyrell. Didn't work out so well for them. That's what it is to be a slave. The last notes I have are from the documentary.
I think our buddy Tim who works in movies does this as well, but like people who work in movies call movies shows. Like when I worked on this show, oh yeah, when I was working on that show in 1982. They don't call them movies. They call them shows. It's just so weird. That's my comment. And I still hear that today from people that work in the business. They call them shows. It just always blows my mind.
I think it was Daryl Hannah or maybe Sean Young talking about Harry. I love how they called Harrison Harry. Harry was never happy on that show. He never was. I mean, it looked pretty miserable to film. You're in the rain maybe every day doing action scenes and just kind of standing around. And they also said that Harrison, if he wasn't shooting, he was in his trailer. Just not interacting.
just crazy there's that one shot of him like walking off the roof but he like ran back out to spin the propeller for them and then got back on set I mean what is going on in the set those stunts like he's really involved and they're doing a lot of the takes in the rain yeah like that guy is he's doing it hmm no clue how they are talking about including the fire in the opening shot
the fire on the sets that they built, those like miniature sets of Los Angeles and how they'd explain how they added fire. I needed to go lay down. I couldn't rewind one more time on that doc. 1982, they talked about, like, the movies that came out. What movies? Oh, insane. Insane list. 1982. I mean, there was another thing, like... They did in the docs theorize that like, well, if ET didn't come out, maybe we would have had something. And I can definitely see that.
People were theorizing that like E.T., you know, it's a totally different vibe. It's just like what people wanted in that day and age. But like the year is bonkers. E.T., the thing. Blade Runner, Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Tron, First Blood, Rocky III, Poltergeist, and Creepshow, or just to name a few of the movies that came out in 1982. Huh?
And I was born that year, so. Huh? You do the math. Your greatest Borny ever. Huge. You do the math. Sid Mead, we haven't even talked about. Designing, you know, the cars. The city. Holy. His art book. God. I have it in my cart. Pull the trigger. Pull the trigger. I have to. But he's talking about how like coming to set and seeing his drawings like fully realized like.
How amazing is that as an artist? So just like walk onto a set. Like this is what you drew and it's real. Crazy. Oh, well, you know, you say that. The other thing I wanted to mention was what.
the interaction that philip k dick had with ridley scott he brought him into the studio to show him the first 20 minutes and philip k dick said it felt like he took the images that he had in his mind when he wrote the book and put him to the screen like i mean like what a bigger like could you have a bigger compliment from the writer of their description like that is just so amazing
And he's like, can you guys rewind that? Can I see it again? One more time, please. He hasn't lived till the end of this, right? No. He never got to see the full movie? Yeah. Gosh. The story, we haven't really talked about maybe any main downsides, but I do feel like the story does drag in the third act. And it's just kind of, I guess I've come to terms with it.
This is just the movie. It is what it is. It does get a little quiet and not a lot happens. Harrison gets beat up for 45 minutes and you get to the ending. which is Batty getting nuts, howling like a wolf in biker shorts, you know, for 20 minutes. But I don't mind, I didn't mind on this viewing. And I especially didn't mind after watching the documentary because...
you know, visually, like we had said earlier, like, is this the greatest of all time visually? Oh my God. When you, when you, when you think about it, folks, you know, maybe that's preposterous to say, but is this. the best of all time. It might be. So five-star experience re-watching in 4K. Five-star documentary experience. Like, what was accomplished on this movie?
I mean, honestly, it might never happen again. No. Close the book. But also, when you watch the 4K, it's like, this was 1982? This wasn't like five years ago? Six years ago? This movie looks incredible in 4K. looks orders of magnitude better than what is being produced in 2025 and 2024 and 2023. You can't even compare. And this came out in 1982. Okay? Yeah. Danny? I think we've covered it all. I watched this three times.
This week really trying to figure out if this is going to land on my top four, because I don't know what I, I don't know how I could live without this film. I think it's a masterpiece of sci-fi and. noir and performances and story. Everything is firing on all cylinders for me for this film. I would give it six stars as well, Proto. This goes in the Hall of Fame for me. It's just an incredible film. I can't get over it. I'm going to probably watch it five more times this year.
Oh, have mercy. I wonder what kind of commentaries exist for this movie. We'll make it. Oh, boy. If we ever did a commentary, just be us asking how. How? How they filmed this. How they did this. I like that story, too, of them talking about how the set caught fire because of the way they were lighting it, and they needed to film it for hours at a time. So that cityscape, I think the Tyrell building, caught fire.
Oh, I Googled that Tyrell building. You can see, I mean, as of two months ago on Reddit, it's in the Museum of Moving Image in New York City. Oh, wow. The model. of the Tyrell building. That's so cool. We barely even talked about 2049 during that entire conversation. It's okay. We don't have to. We did pretty well. Did pretty well, to be honest. We'll save it for the episode.
What is next week? Is that Danny? Yeah. Virgin Suicides. Sofia Coppola. Back on the pod. All right. Virgin Suicides. Let me see where that's streaming anywhere. I'm just curious. That's a great question. It's on Hoopla. Support your local library. There you go. Maybe they have a DVD in stock. You could go... I don't know what you call that. Check out. You can check it out from your library, your local library.
Virgin suicides. I read the description last time. A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid-1970s. And then after that, Proto's pick is the player. And then we pivoted a little bit for the fourth week. For Gene, we'll be doing the French Connection.
What a month. When's the last time we had a 15 star on this pod? It might never have happened for all I know. Was past lives 15? I don't think so. Shawshank. No. Magnolia. No, there's no way Danny gave you Magnolia five stars. ET? No. Not for Proto. This is the first time. Wow. We settled it. We did it. What a week. What a life. We continue, as we start off the show, we continue to honor Kathleen Kennedy.
for all her decades of work producing banger after banger maybe the most successful producer executive in hollywood history kathleen brought on in closing thoughts just wanted to again say rest in peace gene hackman You know, if you're looking for a movie to watch this week, you've got The Royal Tenenbaums, Unforgiven, The Conversation, The French Connection, Young Frankenstein, The Birdcage, Superman.
The Quick and the Dead, Enemy of the State, Crimson Tide, Night Moves. The list goes on and on. What a great man. What a great actor. He will be missed. We'll see everybody next week. 70mm is a tape deck production featuring original artwork provided by Danny Haas. Spiritual Guidance and V'ger, the robot who loves movies, provided by Pertalexis, producer at large.
Dale underscore A, and music composed by Cinematric. Prints and other merch are available on 70mmpod.com. This episode was mixed, edited, and produced by me, Slim. Support our Patreon for access to our VHS Village Discord to talk movies with new friends. Access to our exclusive episodes in the 70mm Vault. Discounts on merch. uncut episodes, and a physical membership card mailed to you. To check out other Tape Deck podcasts, find the link in the episode notes.
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